Chidester, Arkansas.
. Camden, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$613 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
Living in Chidester, Ouachita County, Arkansas
Chidester is a city of 253 people in Ouachita County. Unemployment in Ouachita County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 3.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ouachita County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Chidester is a very small city in Ouachita County, Arkansas, with a population well under the size of most towns. Few adults hold a four-year degree here, and the county's household incomes sit around the middle of what many rural Arkansas counties see. Winters are mild and cool, with only a dusting of snow most years, and summers turn hot, with plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in professional and business services. Across Ouachita County, some of the biggest workplaces include Ouachita County Medical Center, Camden Fairview School District and Walmart. Unemployment in the county is lower than it was a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. White Oak Lake State Park, a reservoir, is a short drive away, as is Poison Springs State Forest, a protected area of woodland. Poison Springs Battleground State Park, an archaeological site tied to the Civil War, is also a short drive away. For a longer outing, the Little Missouri River is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 6%of adults have a degree
What people in Ouachita County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ouachita County had 6,807 jobs in 2025, 3.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 53° and lows near 31°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 70°. About 2 inches of snow and 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Camden weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ouachita County
- Aerojet Rocketdyne AR Camden Highland Industrial Park ARMSGuided missile and space vehicle propulsion unit and propulsion unit parts manufacturing1,476
- Lockheed Martin Corporation US AR Camden Arkansas Hwy 205 (1527)1,127
- Camden Fairview School DistrictSchool district430FTE
- Ouachita County Medical CenterGeneral hospital328FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters267
- InDemand Industrial Services CorporateConstruction258
- Anthony TimberlandsDimension lumber, softwood, made from logs or bolts228
- Southern Arkansas University TechTwo-year college216
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,223 people in all across the county; Chidester has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chidester’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Ouachita County and the Camden, AR metro.
Chidester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chidester6
Zip codes with a Chidester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chidester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.